The non-profit organisation Reach for Recovery (R4R) is funded each year by the Power of Pink campaign, a South African Mushroom Farmers’ Association’s (SAMFA) initiative. R1 from every pink punnet of fresh mushrooms sold at Pick n Pay stores during October is donated to R4R’s Ditto Project, its objective being to raise funds to provide free silicone prostheses to breast cancer survivors who cannot afford reconstruction after a mastectomy.

The Power of Pink campaign has provided 8000 silicone prostheses to financially strapped breast cancer survivors in the past ten years,  at a cost of more than R5,5 million.

‘To our astonishment 2020 saw the highest amount raised since the campaign’s inception.  Big hearted South Africans contributed just under R700 000.00 despite their own financial hardships brought on by a year of lockdowns and job cuts. We and the Ditto Project recipients have been truly humbled by this generosity’, said  Stephné Jacobs, Reach for Recovery’s National Chairperson

‘We couldn’t be prouder of our association with Reach for Recovery’s Ditto Project. The dedication of every R4R volunteer – a breast cancer survivor herself – and the immense kindness of all South Africans who support the campaign is such restorative testimony to the goodness that lives in people.’, added  SAMFA Chairperson, Ross Richardson.

‘Whilst fresh mushrooms and breast cancer have a strong humanitarian connection in South Africa, there is another scientific link between fresh mushrooms and the fight against breast cancer. In 2010, the Beckman Institute at the City of Hope Cancer Centre in California found that eating just 10g of mushrooms a day more than halved people’s risk of developing breast cancer. That’s means eating just one fresh mushroom a day, a staggeringly easy step in self-care to avoid the ravages of such a terrible disease’, explains the media statement. 

Join me in supporting this worthwhile Reach for Recovery campaign by buying mushrooms in pink punnets at any Pick n Pay.

For more information, please contact Gina McLoughlin on gina@rgcom.co.za or 0824137538.  Alternatively go to SAMFA’s website: www.mushroominfo.co.za